George Harrison Didn’t Enjoy Listening to The Beatles’ Music on CD
George Harrison didn’t enjoy listening to The Beatles‘ music on CD. He preferred to listen to his band’s music some other way.
George Harrison didn’t like listening to The Beatles’ music on CD
During a 1987 interview with Charles Bermant (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters), George spoke about how he thought The Beatles’ music sounded on CD. He liked the older versions better.
“I did buy a CD player when they issued them, yeah,” George explained. “I listened to some of them. I still prefer the old versions, how I remember them on vinyl. There’s a lot of stuff that you can hear now that’s good.
“In some cases, there’s a lot of stuff that you shouldn’t hear so loudly, that’s somehow come out in the mix. On Sgt. Pepper I keep hearing this horrible-sounding tamborine that leaps out of the right speaker. It was obviously in the original mix, but it was never that loud.”
How George would’ve released the remaining Beatles’ music on CD
Bermant pointed out to George that there were still 30 or so songs not on CD. He asked the former Beatle how he would make them available. George explained that it wasn’t The Beatles’ business to decide how their music was distributed anymore.
“Well, it’s none of our business anymore; when our contract expired, we lost any control we had over the Beatles product,” George said.
Still, George explained how he would’ve released The Beatles’ music.
“I suppose if you took all the songs you could put them order in sequence of years as they were recorded, then as the technology advanced and our technique progressed, then you’d hear them in proper order. Or you could put all the singles on one, or the B-sides on another,” he said.
Later, the former Beatle enjoyed how his 1991 Japanese tour sounded on its live album
George played some of his Beatles’ music while on tour with Eric Clapton in Japan in 1991. They recorded everything and put it on a live album. Initially, George thought recording a live performance would be tough, but he thought the album turned out great.
He told Scott Muni at WNEW-FM (per George Harrison on George Harrison), “I’m happy about it anyway. I thought it turned out good; it’s got a really good sound considering live isn’t the easiest thing to record and mix and hold onto the kind of—you know, because you’ve got so much power on the stage with all the amplification, but to put it back into a CD and try to have it sound as powerful, it’s not that easy. But I think it came out pretty good.
“I’m very happy. You know, all the time I was mixing the record, as I said earlier, it’s not that easy mixing trying to get the feel of the show onto disc, but I’m very happy how it turned out.
“The engineer, John Harris, was excellent, and I thought, because I was being precautious, I think it turned out even better than what I was expecting. And it was a great band to work with, and I just hope I can do it again sometime.”
George was pleased with how “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” sounded on the live album. “It’s far superior, I think, to the original studio recording, and Eric just plays his butt off. It’s really good,” he said.
George wasn’t happy about how The Beatles’ music sounded on CD. However, at least he thought his own music sounded good.
